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tv   AM Joy  MSNBC  March 4, 2017 7:00am-9:01am PST

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good morning and welcome to "a.m. joy," coming you to live from los angeles. well, donald trump was up early this morning, doing what he enjoys doing most. rage tweeting. the allegations by trump's itchy twitter fingers are serious. he's now accusing president
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barack obama of wire tapping his phones during the campaign. nbc news reports there is currently no evidence to back up those claims. in one of the six tweets he fired off at around 6:30 this morning, that's 3:00 a.m. pacific time, trump wrote, "terrible, just found out that obama had my wires tapped in trump tower just before the victory. nothing found. this is mccarthyism," exclamation point. "how low has president obama gone to wiretap my phones?" trump has also tried to redirect the fallout from his attorney general's meetings with the russian ambassador. he tweeted, "the first meeting jeff sessions had with the russian ambassador was set up under the obama administration." and just out, "the same russian ambassador that met jeff
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sessions visited the obama white house." the political fallout continues over sessions' misleading answers to the senate judiciary committee about his meetings with the top russian diplomat in washington. he said this week he would recuse himself from potential investigations into the trump campaign's communications with russia. sessions will submit new written testimony. the number of trump advisers who had questionable contacts with russia is now up to five, directly contradicting multiple statements by the white house and the campaign that there was no such contact. joining me now is democratic representative eric swalwell of california who serves on the house intelligence committee, and a former intelligence operative and author of "how to catch a russian spy." malcolm nance, author of "the plot to hack america," and david jones of -- david korn.
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his name isn't david jones. it's david korn. congressman, i want to clear up for people who way not know, do presidents order themselves wire tapping? >> no. protections are in place to keep presidents from doing what donald trump would probably want to do. typically a president wouldn't even be read in until the investigation was complete. this looks like a diversionary tactic, more trump/russia ties followed by trump/russia lies. >> congressman, you're a congressman, you know that information because i presume when you came into congress you didn't know everything about the way the government runs, but you availed yourself of information to find out. >> i asked questions of the experts. >> does it disturb you a little bit that the president of the united states doesn't know that
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the president of the united states doesn't order wiretaps? >> and that 30 minutes later he was tweeting about "the apprentice." >> it is sort of funny but it is sort of disturbing as well, donald trump got up really early this morning to retweet what appears to be conspiracy theories that he may have gotten from breitbart.com. there is a breitbart story that reflects this same idea. and robert costa, who writes for "the washington post," tweeted out about 8:30 this morning, "per an official i've confirmed several people at the white house are circulating this breitbart story." it's story that's titled mark levin, who i believe is a radio host, "investigate obama's silent coup against donald trump." >> i don't even know how to respond to this, this is so crazy. joy, we have to keep our eye on the russian question. that's it. the rest of it is just distractions. >> you're absolutely right.
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to ma pointhat point, malcolm, e at least five members of the trump campaign at the time, j.d. gordon -- i'm sorry, at least five members of the trump campaign that we know of, sorry, that were talking with the russian ambassador, and it includes now jeff sessions, who at the time was a surrogate for the campaign and is now attorney general but who has now recused himself. in your view, what does all of this mean? >> all of this goes back to the fundamental question which has not been answered, which there appears to be a lot of d dissimulation going on, which is why? why were these people in communication with moscow or representatives of moscow at all? it comes down to one of two things. clearly they were not just innocent, these were not part of their everyday duties. they seemed to have a vested interest in a line of communication with moscow.
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in my world that only comes down to one of two things. money or espionage. let's take espionage off the table right now. we know there's a lot of money right here. they believe that moscow is this giant font of cash. but i can just touch for a moment, joy, on the question of the wire tapping. i have been involved in advanced information collection in my world. i have no idea what donald trump is talking about. we do not even do that the way he probably things from "the sopranos" where we're running wires into his office. this is very dangerous. the people who would be tasked in justice, if there were any questions coming from the white house, starting today or any time in the foresable future in how they actually do collections, it means they're preparing for coverup, because they want to know how they're actually getting this information. this is what happens when a
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target starts getting buggy because he knows that he's caught. >> david korn, to that very point, you had j.d. gordon now telling cnn that he did indeed participate in changing the platform at the republican national committee to be softer on this idea of crimea and russia. you have carter page, who has been dissembling wildly, some kind of dance he's being performing with our own chris hayes and on cnn on whether or not he talked about the russian ambassador. jefferson sessions it now appears used campaign money to travel to talk to the ambassador, not in his role as a senator but apparently with the campaign. jared kushner talking with the russians. and of course we know about michael flynn's long relationship with kislyak, the ambassador. you've been investigating this a long time. what does it add up to, to you, david? >> the real question here, you can get to possibilities of active collusion, but the real question is, from june on, it
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was reported in the media that the russians had hacked into the dnc and hacked into the campaign. from august on, trump himself and michael flynn were briefed that the intelligence community had come to that conclusion. in september, clapper says publicly he believes it's the russians. in october, we put out an official -- the government puts out an official statement saying it's the russians. so if at any point in that time frame you have anyone from the trump campaign talking to the russians, and a, they're not telling them to cut it out, or b, they' telling them, he you'll get a better deal with us, that means they are encouraging the russians to continue with this assault upon american democracy. you know, that is in my mind game, set, match. if they knew the russians were messing around in our election and they were doing anything to encourage it, forget about telling them not to, then they are guilty by association, at
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least. and it can get up even more damaging than that. that's what i think they're running scared of. donald trump, he made the argument this morning that we need a full accounting, a public accounting of what intelligence collection was being done on him, and what they found out. and as president of the united states, he has access to that. every white house reporter should be demanding today at the white house, they should be calling everybody in the press office, what's the proof for this? donald trump can have it as president. >> really quickly, we believe there were five investigations, at least some of these people, already going on. presumably donald trump would know that. >> they could find out quite easily, he could just ask. he just has to ask. and he can tell us. he can declassify any piece of information in the government. he has that power. >> and even if there were in theory wiretaps on trump tower, which him disclosing that makes it found as if there was
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something nefarious going on, but if there were, he would is access to that information. >> absolutely. joy, we know the trump platform, which has been very pro-russia. we suspect with a high degree of confidence there are financial ties to russ. the only question is in the middle. what was the actual substance of those discussions with the russians? was there collusion? was there a quid pro quo? that is the part we need to have an answer for. i think the good news is we know that those conversations were recorded, so there will be an answer to that. we just as the american public need an answer to that. >> congressman, this does become an issue for congress. a lot of americans have been perplexed by your colleagues across the aisle, their seeming unwillingness to investigate this, they were enthusiastic about investigating hillary clinton. jeff sessions on july 18th speaks with ambassador kislyak at a heritage foundation event. in september, sessions has a
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private meeting with kislyak. by this time harry reid, former senate minority leader, had already sent a letter to the fbi, to jim comey, saying something is wrong here. in september you already had carter page resign, you already had manafort resign. so they knew hacking was going on. but he had this private meeting, which he said he didn't remember. will congress ever investigate this? >> we have to. so elijah cummings and i have the bill that calls for an independent commission to get to the bottom of what happened, what we can do to make sure this never happens again. we have one republican who signed on board, walter jones. he's a man who can put party befo -- who can put country before party. we need others. >> they say there is no proof that there is no proof that
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there is any american involved with talking with the russians. he committed himself to that. what are the chances that his colleagues in congress will investigate? kevin mccarthy said there should be recusal and then walked it back. >> they should be very careful about what they said in the past and what they're calling for now. there may not be any proof that was in his hands at that time. coming to that point, i want to touch again back on this claim about the wiretap. the president of the united states is the ultimate authority. he is commander in chief. but if he was the target, they do have the right to withhold information from him. he does not have a need to know on a counterintelligence investigation if he is actually suspected of doing activities. the people who would be doing this, it would be a very close-held something, one or two people in the united states government. he is acting this morning like that information is real, which
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means he's confirming everything that we suspect. and by running around and tweeting about it, that he's afraid of it, he knows something's going on and he's trying to project a frame of reference around information that he suspects is coming out. if he thinks his phones were tapped, then he believes we know everything. and this is a dance that is very dangerous. i think this is an historic moment by learning this information this morning. >> david korn, if you could get one question in to that white house briefing they do everyday that doesn't necessarily get a lot of answers, what is the question the media should be asking right now? >> i think the question is today, does the president have proof that he was wire tapped. that's the phrase he used. or is he just, you know, peddling stuff he reads in breitbart? he has to be held to account. it is a very serious charge. i think it's completely unfounded. tell us. tell us, direct the fbi to tell
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us so the deputy ag to tell us, where there fisa warrants issued, who were they issued on, what was gathered on them? these are very simple questions. and i also want to know what mike flynn was doing talking with the russian ambassador before the election. we still don't have answers to that. >> and i think a very important point, malcolm just made it, he would know all of this information, he's president of the united states, he could get all of it unless he's the target. congressman swallwell, thank you for being here, thank you, guys. you're all stars. up next, former california governor arnold schwarzenegger says hasta la vista. maybe it was the day your baby came home.
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and they hired a big, big movie star, arnold schwarzenegger, to take my place. and we know how that turned out. the ratings went right down the tubes. it's been a total disaster. and mark will ever, ever bet against trump again. and i want to just pray for arnold, if we can, for those ratings, okay? >> arnold schwarzenegger, former bodybuilder, movie star, governor of california, and donald trump's punching bag, announced he's done with "celebrity apprentice" because of the show's, quote, baggage. he said, "with trump being involved in the show, people had a bad taste and don't want to participate as spectator or as a sponsor or in any other way support the show. it's very divisive period right
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now and i think the show got caught up in all that division." the baggage in chief still has a producer credit on the show which airs on the nbc television network. joining me now, business and political marketing consultant and former "apprentice" consultant terrell dell. my apprenti are here. i love saying "apprenti." when he wasn't accusing the former president of the united states of wire tapping trump tower, president trump was attacking arnold schwarzenegger and saying he isn't voluntarily leaving "the apprentice," he was fired, "sad end to great show." but tara, the ratings were bad because people didn't want to watch the show because don't was associated with it. your thoughts? >> exactly. the trump brand has been very,
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very much damaged by trump himself. he's damaged his own brand. and that's a big part of why people were not tuning into the show. and also he does not help his cause in terms of trying to reinvigorate his brand as president of the united states by talking about "the apprentice" at a time when there's so much going on in this country. look at where his priorities are. his priorities are focused on things that have nothing to do with governing the united states of america. and so that's not lost on people. and he's hurt the show. and he's hurting himself as president. i mean, it's unreal. >> it's unreal, randall, first of all, i wakes up really early in the morning to get on twitter, and i love twitter, but he's president of the united states and he's canreening from tweeting about conspiracy theories to tweeting about this. that's weird in itself. is this donald trump's style, is this the way he was when you,
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after the "apprentice," were working with him, was he this erratic at the time? >> let me say, joy, when i was a kid, i always nwanted to grow u to live under a president who tweeted about reality tv at 6:00 in the morning. this is not uncommon. we saw this throughout the whole campaign trail. this back and forth with arnold schwarzenegger has been going on for some time now. i love the tweet in january where he said, the ratings are in, arnold got swamped, by comparison to the ratings machine, djt. i mean, this is unreal, like tara said. yes, we saw similar behavior on the show, yes, we saw similar behavior on the campaign trail. for those who thought he might pivot when he got into the white house, guess what, no pivot. >> he's 70, he's not going to change. i want to play arnold schwarzenegger's response to that tweet that randall just
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talked about. i think tre was another tweet, actually. no, it was a response to the sound cut we played earlier where trump at e national prayer breakfast, okay, at the national prayer breakfast, said that we should pray for arnold schwarzenegger's ratings in a show that donald trump was still the executive producer was, so any bad ratings accrue to donald trump. this is arnold schwarzenegger's response. >> hey, donald, i have a great idea. why don't we switch jobs? you take over tv, because you're such an expert in ratings, and i take over your job, and then people can finally sleep comfortably again, hmm? >> terry, you are a political strategist. it is interesting, okay, of course arnold schwarzenegger cannot be president because he is not a natural born citizen. however, i was thinking the other day, actually tweeting the other day, if arnold schwarzenegger really wanted to take on donald trump on a political level, he's much more popular, much more popular, much
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more famous than donald trump. he was a governor. he actually has governing experience. and he's seen as a more serious thinker on policy. he's a republican but a real republican, a conservative that i think conservatives have more respect for than a lot of them have for donald trump. i mean, he theoretically could be a really potent political adversary now that he's not associated with that show. do you think my theory holds any water? >> well, joy -- >> and he's an immigrant. >> joy, as you remember, you probably remember, arnold schwarzenegger wanted to be president, and he couldn't for the reasons that you stated. and there was this groundswell at one point when he was somewhat popular as governor of california, there was this groundswell of support and people saying we should change the constitution. and it was specifically for arnold schwarzenegger. so i do think that -- one of the things i think is interesting, i want to veer away one second from your point, clearly this is galling arnold schwarzenegger
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that it is donald trump who is president and not him when he actually was someone who took governing seriously. i don't think he was a good governor, but he seemed to actually take governing seriously. i think at this point, arnold schwarzenegger has done a lot of harm to his own brand too, so i don't think he could be a serious contender either. certainly when he was governor he actually took his responsibilities seriously which donald trump is clearly not doing. >> randall, on bill maher last night, he made the point that this idea of things people have done to hurt their brand, arnold's have to do with womanizing and that kind of thing. the person who is president of the united states right now is a guy who peeped on teenagers in a beauty contest, who said grab them by the -- i won't finish the sentence, you can google all the lewd, crude things he said. if crudeness is no longer a bar that a president has to clear, if being crude doesn't stop you from being president, is there
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anything that arnold schwarzenegger has done in his past that's worse than anything that donald trump has done? >> it's a great point. you think about where we are as a society. people come to me regularly and say, how do you explain donald trump? i would respond and say, how do we explain america? that we have evolved to a society that the kind of behaviors we see in donald and in arnold, to tara's point, has become normalized. i think there's something sad about that. the political realm has always been considered very noble. with all due respect, i believe donald has demeaned the office of the presidency and his continued behavior and this continued tweeting and taking the bait from people like arnold schwarzenegger doesn't help his cause in any way. there is no accident there is this #grabyourwallet campaign, nordstrom's and others who have dropped the trump name and boycotting the trump name. that will only continue as
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donald continues this behavior. >> i want to play a clip from donald trump's joint address to congress for which he got lo luxuriating praise from the press who fell into a swoon how presidential he was. let's play a little clip of what he had to say. >> the time for small thinking is over. the time for trivial fights is behind us. we just need the courage to share the dreams that fill our hearts. >> or the time for trivial fights is early in the morning on twitter. >> donald trump's twitter feed. >> dr. jekyll and mr. trump. >> we love it because you guys are so great together. you guys actually know donald trump pre-president, so we appreciate it. tara, you'll be back later in the show, randall, thank you until next time. next, donald trump's orwellian new office of
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during donald trump's first address to a joint session of congress on tuesday, he focused on a subject that has been at the forefront of his agenda since the start of his campaign, the alleged national violent crime wave supposedly being perpetrated by undocumented immigrants. and he did it in a particularly >> i have ordered the department of homeland security to create an office to serve american victims. the office is called v.o.i.c.e., victims of immigration crime engagement. >> there were audible groans from some members of congress, with good reason. it follows an executive order he signed in january instructing the department of homeland security to on a weekly basis
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make public criminal actions committed by aliens. >> we are removing drug dealers, gang members, and criminals that prey on our innocent citizens. >> in reality studies show undocumented immigrants commit crimes at a much lower rate than the general population. the president's call is chilling because using crime to incite hatred has a long history in the united states, from the lynching of african-americans to the targeting of european immigrants at the turn of the century, when some police departments broke down crime by nationality. it happened in germany in the 1930s when the government used crime allegations to gin up anti-semitism. germany's ministry of justice ordered prosecutors to forward every criminal indictment in which the defendant was jewish so the ministry's press office could publicize them. the real concern being raised by
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critics of the president's plan is that it unfairly stigmatizes undocumented immigrants. >> to put an office like this out there shows how anti-immigrant this president is. of course we want to go after the criminals. we want to go after all criminals, no matter who they are. >> my apparently weipanel weigh come back. introducing flonase sensimist. more complete allergy relief in a gentle mist you may not even notice. using unique mistpro technology, new flonase sensimist delivers a gentle mist to help block six key inflammatory substances that cause your symptoms. most allergy pills only block one. and six is greater than one. break through your allergies. new flonase sensimist. ♪ [ rumbling ]
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[ crying ] that sobbing that you hear is from a young girl watching as her father is taken away by immigration authorities as he's dropping his kids off at school. gonzalez was taken into custody on tuesday in los angeles. according to the national day
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laboring organizing network, he is an undocumented father of four who has lived in the united states for more than 25 years. his only criminal record is for misdemeanor driving offences including a dui. the organization is leading a petition to prevent his deportation. joining me now is antonio vargas, founder of define american. he attended trump's joint address to congress as a guest of nancy pelosi. i want to get your impressions in the room when you heard donald trump, whose policies caused that 12-year-old to be crying in that car, said that he wanted to create something called v.o.i.c.e., the victims of immigrant crime, and an "e." what did you feel when you heard that? >> victims of immigration crime
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enforcement. i was sitting there and kept repeating that, first of all how orwellian the whole thing sounds. that was, by the way, the only time that there was an audible grown in the entire chamber, was when this was being mentioned. to me it means anybody now can be an i.c.e. agent. i'm sure there's a bunch of people right now calling for my deportation, they're wondering why imilleg iillega i'm illegal my illegality. i'm supremely disappoint in my journalist colleagues, who talked about the softening of president trump, when the
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hardening of his with regard to the immigrant community, you saw that video, i think that's a 12 years old, sitting in a car watching her dad get arrested right in front of her. a young woman in mississippi was speaking at a press conference in mississippi, surrounded by other immigration activists, and was taken by i.c.e. right after. and mind you, apparently she's about to be deported without a judge hearing,ack to argentina where she hasn't been since she was a kid. >> the violation of due process that americans are witnessing, the person, whoever it was that shot that video that captured the daughter, they're being considered american heroes. they are are standing up for the first amendment. they are documenting abuses against the fourth amendment. they are documenting violations of due process. we have immigration agents
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clearly identifying themselves as police. that is something that this kind of dynamic has been happening. it started under george w. bush -- it didn't start, but it ramped up under george w. bush, took off under obama, tamped down a little bit. jose and i, having not been born in this country, are not fish to be caught and released. we are human beings. it is sadly, as a journalist and as a mexican immigrant who is an american citizen, this notion of how we are spoken about, we are caught and released in some way, is the dehumanization, right? so these -- what's happening here is that actually the v.o.i.c.e. program is probably going to be a losing policy, in that president donald trump, who considers these policies to be winners, what that policy is going to do is allow us as journalists to have access to data which will ultimately, according to our analysis at latino usa and our colleagues, will prove that undocumented
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immigrants actually commit fewer crimes, that crime is actually decreased while immigration, including undocumented immigration, has increased in the united states. and that these are communities that are on the whole safer. so the actual criminals, who are they? u.s.-born. and we have to look at that, right? also, as i have consistently said, if we have this many violent criminals, by the way, we don't see any of these gangbangers getting rounded up at all, but if we have this many criminals out on our streets, we don't have an immigration problem, we have a policing problem. we have a policing problem. but this is a moment, joy, just to finish, what's going to happen is that young people will not be silenced. american citizens will document this. it will come to the public. that will be thanks to, again, a failing policy on donald trump's behalf that is going to put this right front and center for everyone, not just journalists, to witness. >> and i think that's very
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important for people to hear and understand, but one of the other things i think there will be is winners. you had the attorney general of the united states reopen the door to using private prisons which presumably would have a windfall of human beings to encaen ca incarcerate from these policies. the trump administration plans to expand immigrant detention, they plan to separate mothers from their children at the border, that i.c.e. plans to deport even people with no criminal background. i want to play something from chris hayes' immigrant detention report on friday. >> "all in" has exclusively obtained meeting notes from a town hall that john lafferty held for asylum officers last month. in those notes he indicates dhs is planning to expand the number of family immigrant detention beds from the current level of
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3,500 beds up to 20,000 beds, an increase of nearly 500%. >> jose, you put out what i think is a very solid list of things that journalists need to understand. >> yes. >> when they are talking about immigration, no human being is illegal, immigration is not one size fits all, a border wall would be an ineffective immigration restriction, immigrants commit less crime than the native born population, immigrants start businesses that grow the economy. these are things that journalists need to understand. do you need to add to that list undocumented immigrants are a potential revenue source, the same way that black people have been for police in these communities? we're talking about making undocumented immigrants a revenue source for private prisons. >> if i can just get journalists to understand facts. give credit where credit is due, people watching television right now, this is the most nuanced
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conversation about immigration that you're going to see on television, this is the kind of context and facts that is lacking in the discourse on this issue. i'm saying this as an undocumented person, i'm saying this as a journalist. how many more billions of dollars to the american taxpayers want to spend -- >> exactly. >> -- trying to detain people whose only crime it is to provide for their families? >> and how is this going to make our omy great again? >> how many more billions of dollars do you want to spend trying to protect yourselves from a border that's never going to be fully secure? right? at the end of the day, we have to realize is that what we're talking about here is not only, quote unquote, illegals. we're talking about human beings. and this is way beyond mexico. one of the things that we noted in this fax sheet, the fastest growing undocumented population are asians immigrants, not latinos. i think we have racial profiled mexicans in this country. i think we owe the mexican
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community an apology, the fact that we have made it all about them. >> absolutely. go ahead. >> i was with a latino activist in chicago who said this will be the largest mass displacement of people, of mexican people in the united states. we have been through this before, in the 1930s mexicans and mexican-americans, u.s. citizens, were rounded up and deported. we came back because this is our country and we survived it. so this is going to be a very desperate situation. i just, you know, when i saw that policy decision about separating mothers from children, and i was trying to think about, so i'm taking -- i don't want to speak officially for npr, i'm putting on my mother's hat, like being a mom, and i was like, how could i speak to donald trump about this as a parent? and i was like, i really don't find any way that i can speak to him as a parent. i tried. but then i was like, well, okay, melania, ivanka, is this
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essentially what you're saying you're okay with, you're prepared to give a thumbs up, that the values of our country now are to separate a mother from their child. >> and melania is an immigrant. so we're going to expand this conversation, because i think you made an important point, there are caribbean-american undocumented people, asian-american, russian undocumented people all over new york. we're going to keep this conversation going. thank you for your bravery, for speaking out, it was incredibly brave of you to go to that joint address. i thank you. a lot of people are praying for you, thank you, sir. maria, you are a warrior, thank you so much for being here, we're going to do this more and more. >> thank you. coming up in our next hour, the dc scavenger hunt for the gop's super duper uber secret plan to replace obamacare. and we'll have our moment of maxine as a resistance hero, congresswoman maxine waters, joins me live on set.
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last night i had the opportunity to be a guest on hbo's "realtime with bill maher." take a look. >> paul ryan has made it clear he's going to use trump's right hand to get the things paul ryan wants. paul ryan wants to essentially repeal the 20th century, privatize social security, gut medicare, gut medicaid, gut food stamps, turn everything into a fistful of vouchers, vouchers to go to school when you'll have to pay for because ms. devos wants to privatize it, a voucher to buy health insurance, good luck if it's not enough to pay for a policy that will cover you if you're really sick. always a pleasure. up next, journalist and activist
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given that i have no idea how or when it happened, the way it was done was also sophisticated, i can only presume that this is -- this was done by people with -- at least with connections to the russian special services. as for the reason, this is what i have no doubt about, this is because of my involvement in the russian opposition. >> you just heard from a russian journalist and vocal critic the vladimir putin who has been poisoned twice. he believes the russian security services are behind it, although the government of course denies it. he sat down this week for his first interview since waking up from a medically induced coma after his second poisoning and says that despite the assassination attempts he's ear to get back to work.
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joining me i masha gessen, author of "the man without a face: the unlikely rise of vladimir putin." i just saw you not too long ago. we were chatting about this idea of sort of the outre becoming real, things that you can't imagine happening happening. in russia you have this journalist whose name is vladimir kara-murza, who was poisoned, he believes, on orders of vladimir putin. he says he still wants to get to work. in our country, the americans look at that as that's stuff that happens in russia, it could never happen here. i want you to listen to donald trump talking about putin and talking about killing journalists and what he thinks about that. >> i hate some of these people. but i would never kill them. i hate them. no, these people, honestly, i'll be honest, i'll be honest, i would never kill them.
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i would never do that. let's see. no, i wouldn't. >> he's obviously joking there. >> funny. >> and nobody is accusing donald trump of wanting to kill journalists. but the fact that when confronted with the idea that vladimir putin kills journalists, his instinct is to make light of it and say, well, i wouldn't do it either. what do you think of that? >> do i think that donald trump is going to have journalists killed? i mean, part of what has happened in russia over the last 17 years was that vladimir putin has established a state monopoly on the media. he has started by blacklisting journalists, by threatening journalists, staging a kidnapping of a journalists. journalists have become off-limits, or they have been placed outside the law.
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it's sort of permanently open season on people, on journalists who are in that position. i don't think putin has to personally order every single attack on journalists. journalists get poisoned, shot, beaten up, sometimes beaten to death. sometimes journalists get stabbed. i don't think every single one of those attacks on an opposition journalist has been ordered personally by putin. but every single one of them has been enabled by putin. and the way that he enables them is by engaging in very much the same sort of rhetoric that trump is now sort of wading into, calling journalists enemies of the state, talking about how much he hates them, and also normalizing the idea of killing, even, the way that donald trump did in his interview with bill o'reilly. >> and you do also have the question of, you know, and i agree with you, there's nobody saying he's going to do that, he puts journalists in a cage on display at his rallies to be mocked by people, vilified, that
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definitely happens. then there was this question, and this was when jefferson sessions was going through his confirmation hearings, and senator amy cloklobuchar asked this question, will you make the commitment not to put reporters in jail for doing their jobs. and sessions' answer was, "i'm not sure, i haven't studied those regulations." and donald trump has talked about the idea of reopening the idea of being able to sue an individual journalist for saying thgs he doesn't like. these are things you have to put in the realm of possibility, right? >> absolutely. not just the realm of possibility. he's declared his intention of going after journalists through the courts. >> and in all of this, i think, in service of what you heard from stephen miller, what you've heard in some ways from sean spicer, this idea that they want everyone to obey, to be obedient about praising donald trump, and there's different ways they can try to enforce that obedience, but i'm interested in your take on the joint address.
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you published, quite famously, these rules for survival in an authoritarian system. and i will put those rules up real quick. one of them, believe the autocrat, don't be taken in by small signs of normality, institutions won't save you, don't make compromises, and remember the future. on tuesday you had a lot of effusive praise for trump for speaking slowly and reading from the teleprompter and for a moment with the wife of a navy s.e.a.l. who died because of president trump's orders. van jones fawns, in a year criticism will be unpatriotic. tease that out for us. >> i hope i'm wrong. but what i saw looked very familiar to me. he created this situation, where he had this widow there and everyone had to stand up for a standing ovation. and bernie sanders standing up
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for the ovation looked like he had been taken hostage. but the mood in the hall and the mood, more broadly, in the country, is such, and donald trump didn't create the mood, but the mood is such that you cannot not stand up when applause is called for for this widow of a navy s.e.a.l. and then i was completely blown away by the praise that was heaped on donald trump for reading the teleprompter. van jones was just the most striking example to me. but this -- it wasn't just the idea that he sounded presidential, but it was also the way that van jones, and i'm sorry for singling him out, but it was just such a clear example, the way that he positioned himself. he sort of said, okay, there are people who want donald trump to continue to be a buffoon and there are people who want him to become president of all americans, as though these are
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two equal sides. and van jones stands in the middle right next to donald trump, who is in the middle. >> yeah, it is a confounding thing, and i think it's a challenge for the media. i would advise everyone to reread these eight rules that masha gessen has put forward for us, how to deal with an autocratic situation. thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. next, why are the republicans keeping their new health care plan such a super-duper secret?
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the future of business in new york state is already in motion. companies across the state are growing the economy, with the help of the lowest taxes in decades, a talented workforce, and world-class innovations. like in plattsburgh, where the most advanced transportation is already en route. and in corning, where the future is materializing. let us help grow your company's tomorrow - today at esd.ny.gov i am also calling on this congress to repeal and replace obamacare with reforms that expand choice, increase access, lower costs, and at the same time provide better health care. >> welcome back to "a.m. joy." how exactly will republicans fill such a tall order?
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who knows? because the republicans insist they have a plan of their own to repeal and replace obamacare like they've been saying for years, they're just keeping it a secret for now. house republicans are reportedly rewriting their draft replacement bill this week in a basement room of the capitol with no democrats, no senators, and no members of the public allowed. senator rand paul along with several democrats went on a scavenger hunt to find the bill with paul wheeling around his printer to make copies of the draft. he didn't have any luck. amid paul's stunt and the accompanying outcry, house leaders say they weren't doing anything in secret, just going through the normal process and refining the bill. another draft of the bill was leaked to politico on friday. republicans, who accused democrats of ramming the aca down their throats, are keeping the bill shrouded in secrecy, even though the first committee votes are scheduled for next week. joining me are christina
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belantoni, jonathan cohen, tara dowd dell, and dr. cory baer, thank you for being here. is there a bill, and if so, where is it? >> there is not a bill yet. there is lots of draft pieces of legislation which are being worked on by kind of an elite group of people that tend to handle health care among the republicans. >> isn't that what they accused of democrats of doing? >> it's almost exactly the same thing that happened. and this is unfortunately one of the ways that legislation gets made. it's not a partisan thing. the gatekeepers of power tend to have a lot of say. people like rand paul, who don't necessarily have that much influence in the process, get shut out. and the people often get shut out. >> very quickly, are there members of the trump campaign in those rooms? >> we don't know if they're in the rooms or not. i believe that there are some of them in there. but the white house has really left a lot of this to tom price, who is a former member of the house republicans. >> is that what republicans
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accused president obama of doing? let's go through some of the ideas that donald trump, even though his people may not be in the room, these are things he says he wants. let's talk about this. donald trump's idea on preexisting conditions. here he is during his joint address. >> first, we should ensure that americans with preexisting conditions have access to coverage and that we have a stable transition for americans currently enrolled in the health care exchanges. >> doctor, if they drop the affordable care act, can those things happen? >> no. i mean, it would be a very simple thing for the republicans to do. all they have to do have a plan that increases coverage, increases accessibility, and decreases premiums. that's all they have to do. duh, that's not going to happen, that's impossible. if he drops the medicaid expansion, 20 million people are going to lose health care immediately.
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he cannot do the things that he's trying to do. that's why they're so shrouded in secrecy, trying to put something together that would make the american people happy as well as the insurance companies' boards of trustees, because they still have to make their money. there's no way he'll be able to do that at all, that we just saw. no way. >> all right. let's move on to donald trump's next idea. this is to use tax credits to help people afford insurance. let's take a listen. >> secondly, we should help americans purchase their own coverage through the use of tax credits and expanded health savings accounts. but it must be the plan they want, not the plan forced on them by our government. >> so tara, i'll come to you on this, the idea of instead of giving what the affordable care act does now, which is essentially subsidizing premiums, just giving people a tax credit that they can use to buy insurance and using health savings accounts. as a small business owner, does
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that sound like someone that would help someone like you buy insurance? >> no, it doesn't help me as a small business owner. what does help me as a small business owner is that my company, companies with 25 employees or less, actually get a tax credit to provide benefits. that part of the affordable care act, another thing that doesn't get enough attention. if we examine the tax credits that donald trump is talking about, what paul ryan and those who are drafting these proposals are talking about is only giving tax credits based on age, not income. currently, the subsidies offered by the affordable care act are based on income. that is how we allow people who are in a financial situation that doesn't allow them to buy insurance to buy insurance without being -- you know, without hurting their bottom lines completely. that's one of the big lies that came out that needs to be called out. they keep saying, well, premiums rose. yes, premiums did rise, but people get subsidies from the government under the affordable
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care act to purchase insurance. so as the premiums rise, so do the subsidies. that's something that has been a very big lie that's made its way out there that needs to be corrected. >> absolutely. jonathan, this is one of the things that paul ryan seems most interested in. this is rolling back the expansion of medicaid and turning it into a block grant. let's hear donald trump. >> thirdly, we should give our state governors the resources and flexibility they need with medicaid to make sure no one is left out. >> jonathan, would turning medicaid into block grants make sure that no one is left out? >> no. actually it would have the opposite effect. they love to use the word "flexibility." let's give the states more flexibility. when you hear them say we're going to give the states flexibility, what you need to understand is what they're really saying is, we're going to dramatically reduce the money going to the states that the states use to pay for medicaid. and here is the remarkable thing. the republican plans as we've
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seen them so far, they're not just talking about rolling back the expansion. they're not just talking about undoing the affordable care act. they want to cut medicaid beyond where it was before. they want to roll medicaid back so that even people who had coverage before, their coverage would be at risk. this is a massive cut in medicaid. we are talking about millions, tens of millions of people losing insurance because of it. >> and very quickly before the next clip, doctor, do you concur with that? i'm sure, you know, in health clinics around the country, if you give states a block grant and they decide not to cover people who would otherwise be eligible for medicaid, what happens to those patients at the emergency room door? >> this would be horrible. we know that perfection is the enemy of great. and the aca was not perfect. but let's make no mistake, it was great and is great. so the reality of those patients having to now go to the emergency room instead of getting prior care and prevent
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care, like i always say, pay me now or pay me later, because those states still have to pay the indirect costs of those hospitals in the states taking care of those seriously ill people when they could pay at the beginning for people to get primary care and they wouldn't have to show up at the emergency room. people will pay regardless in that state. >> let's go to the next one, a common republican tchotchke, that is malpractice reform. here is donald trump. >> fourth, we should implement gal reforms that protect patients and doctors from unnecessary costs that drive up the price of insurance and work to bring down the artificially high price of drugs, and bring them down immediately. >> this is something, christina, you hear republicans talk about a lot. >> yes. and not just at the federal level. at the state level. it is a very expensive cost to doctors. it has dramatically affected the way health care is run in this country. but it is kind of a common thing. they've never been able to agree
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on it before, even when george w. bush was president and republicans were in charge of congress then. i just wanted to add on the medicare expansion, the concept the republicans are really talking about on capitol hill right now is this idea of skin in the game, you might charge a higher premium or make sure people have co-pays that are higher. you're talking about poor people, particularly in these cuts go through in this way, it will be people that are more poor and fewer people. and then you look at the states that their governors are deciding not to go along with the bigger picture. so it is a very complicated process that could hurt poor people. >> they feel poor people should be paying more into their own insurance. >> right. >> even though their tax cuts would have richer people paying less. let's go to the one that's the most common republican talking point when it comes to their version of health care reform, and that is selling insurance across state lines. let's take a listen. >> and finally, the time has come to give americans the freedom to purchase health insurance across state lines.
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>> so jonathan, that made the republicans in the room very happy, it's something they all wanted. would that make any difference whatsoever in terms of making health care more affordable? >> so there's one of two ways this goes. it's possible insurance companies basically say, we don't really want to do this, insurance is a local product and we don't want to sell across state lines. if that's the case, it won't make aarned bit of difference on premiums. the other possibility, and the one i think a lot of peoe worry about, is that what happens is we see something like with the credit card industry, where all the insurers go to the states with the least regulations and they sell insurance from there. well, that's great, except that means everyone is going to go to the state that doesn't require insurance to cover prescription drugs or doesn't require insurance to cover mental health. and you get a race to the bottom, where basically all the insurers go there, they sell policies from there, and regulations in every other state basically become meaningless because maybe you're new york
quote
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state and you want to say, we want to make sure everyone in our state gets mental health insurance. that's great, but there's an insurer in delaware or south dakota who sell policies that don't have mental health coverage and those are cheaper so lots of people go and buy those policies. then if you have mental health issues or you're worried about mental health care, you can't find a policy except one that's very expensive. >> or you end up buying a dirt cheap policy that doesn't cover everything. i have to read to you guys what a member of congress, his name is roger marshall of kansas, representative marshall of kansas. this is him explaining why the medicaid expansion doesn't work. he's a practicing obstetrician. he says, the poor will always be with us, there's a group of people who just don't want health care and aren't going to take care of themselves. i'll throw that out to anybody who would like to talk back to roger. the doctor is waving his arms. >> why would they bring jesus
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into this? let me say something. if the medicaid expansion is taken away, it would be a travesty of unseen and unknown proportions. and it would be something that america would have to deal with, the blood of its government on its hands forever. and i'm going to say that and leave that politician alone. >> jesus cared about the poor. >> exactly. >> jesus would want poor people to have health care. so that is just such a stunning statement. actually i shouldn't be surprised by that statement. >> quickly. >> i was just going to say, republicans, this is the core issue with republicans. republicans seem to be under the impression in this country that we have a rich people aren't rich enough problem. that is not the problem we have in this country. so policy proposals are being created around that problem. >> absolutely. it's alt-jesus, that's what we're dealing with.
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coming up, yes, it's the moment of maxine. congresswoman maxine waters joins me live in-studio to discuss her continued resistance to the trump administration. get to nissan now. and save on a lineup featuring rogue. with available intelligent safty shield technologies... that could stop for you. take on the unexpected, with six 20-17 iihs top safety picks. it's clear why we're america's fastest-growing auto brand. get to nissan now for 0% financing on 11 models and no payments for 90 days. befi was a doer.gia, i was active. then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. my doctor said moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. she also prescribed lyrica. fibromyalgia is thought to be the result of overactive nerves. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves.
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this is ceremonial. and in this ceremony, people lie, they smile, they shake hands, they hug each other. they honor the president. i'm not about any of that. i'm prepared to interact with the president only when he puts up his budget and his agenda that i'm going to have to fight. so let's not talk about this ceremony in relationship to, you know, public policy, real public policy. i don't choose to go. i don't choose to go. i don't choose to honor him. i've said that.
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and i won't be a part of the ceremony and that's that. >> congresswoman maxine waters. her one-woman resistance to the normalization of donald trump continued this week with her refusal to attend his address to congress. the representative from california is joining me for my moment of maxine. >> thank you. okay. >> congresswoman. you have really become sort of the physical embodiment of the resistance in congress. just explain to me why you are so obstinate about even doing something like going to the joint address, which, you know, your other colleagues went. >> absolutely. as i watched donald trump during the campaign, i could not believe that this grown man could be so offensive. as a mter of fact, when he mimicked the disabled journalist, and when he talked about grabbing women by their private parts, all of that just shocked me.
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i've never seen anything like that. and particularly someone who is running for the president of the united states of america? i was convinced that he could not represent this country. he was not credible. that he had no good values. and that i would never, ever participate in what people would consider a normal fashion. he's not normal. and he does not deserve to be honored. so i don't go to these ceremonial events where you're praising and honoring and exchanging niceties. and for those people who say, oh, he became presidential, he did not. he cannot become presidential. he is who he is. and i mean, whatever his socialization was, whatever his upbringing was, he is not someone that deserved to be president of the united states of america, wanting and honoring others, because he does not. >> and yet you see, for instance we'll talk about it later, the
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presidents of the hbcus making the pilgrimage to the oval office, going to the photo op, then later coming out and saying we were used. it seems like people want badly to normalize him. >> well, people expect that the president of the united states will conduct himself in a certain way. and he has a responsibility for leadership, the initiation of the budget and all of that. so these presidents of the h historically black colleges and universities want to upgrade their venues. they want to make sure technology is there for their students. so they took a chance and came there to meet with him, only to be used in a photo op. >> speaking of the way the president of the united states conducts himself, i have to get your take on the early morning tweet storm, and it is sort of ironic that trump was just given all of these honorifics, and then he does this this morning,
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tweeted out a tweet storm accusing former president barack obama of tapping had i s inping wires tapped at trump tower. and we can see all the tweets up there, saying, you know, is it legal for a sitting president to be wiretapping a race for president prior to the election? a new low. and saying, i bet you can get an investigation of it, on and on, calling -- saying it's the in you nixon watergate, calling president obama bad or sick. what do you make of - what is this? >> he's not normal. there's something wrong with this president. first of all, obama could not order a wiretap on him. >> why is it that members of congress know that but the president doesn't know that? >> well, the president doesn't know a lot about congress or the government or how it all works. all of the promises he was making while he was campaigning, i think he thought he could come in kind of like dictator style and tell people what to do,
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we're going to build this wall, and we're going to get rid of obamacare. well, you know, they still haven't gotten rid of obamacare, and they're hiding whatever weak proposal they've put together to try and do it. and the wall that he was going to build, the big, beautiful wall? now he's coming to the taxpayers and saying, well, i need you to pay for it, even though he had said during the campaign i'm going to make them pay for it. and now i'm going to make them reimburse me. so the man is not trustworthy. he makes promises. as a matter of fact, i wonder sometimes if he's not taking his cues from putin, because he thinks that he can do what putin does in terms of just tell people what to do, direct the whole congress what to do. and so i'm not surprised about these comments. i'm surprised that anybody believed him when he ran from his script, when he came to the congress, instead of, you know, other journalists saying, oh, he really did transform himself, he
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was so presidential, i think he's on his way. i never believed that. and i'm not surprised by these tweets that he's doing. i'm just surprised that he would try this one more time, to make the american people believe him when he talks about obama having, you know, basically put him under surveillance. >> malcolm nance was on earlier and said this was an indication of fear, that he understands the putin story is not going away and the revelations are only going to get worse. where does this wind up going in congress? >> let me just say this. and i really do wish the american people would pay a lot of attention to what is going on. and from my point of view, this is not simply because he wants to have a good relationship with russia and with putin. this is about oil. when you take a look at what i call the kremlin clan that surrounds him, they're all connected in some way with either ukrai or with russia,
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with putin, and the kremlin. and, you know, whether we even talk about tillerson, the secretary of state, i think his number one priority is to get that deal done that exxon executed with putin, multibillion dollar deal to drill in the arctic. all these others, wilbur ross, roger stone, they're all connected with russia or the russia side of the ukraine. and if we lift the sanctions, which is what they want us to do, this is the number one priority, lift these sanctions so we can all continue to make money. >> get back to business. >> that's right. >> there are two bills floating through congress to try to prevent the president from being able to lift sanctions without congress. do you think they'll pass? >> absolutely. he said during the campaign that he wanted to lift those sanctions. but when you take a look at john mccain and lindsey, they said we want to strengthen those
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sanctions. i don't think they're going to get those sanctions lifted. and i think we really should not allow that to happen. >> very quickly, you have been so embraced by the resistance, especially the young folks, the resistance loves you. one of the disconnects has been getting that energy out there among resistors into politics in a way that actually can change elections and get people elected. >> yes. >> advise the democratic party, advise your party, how can the party be embraced by the resistance? who see a lot of democrats, frankly, as the enemy, as the establishment. >> i know. and there's a lot of talk from democrats about how do we get the millennials involved, how do we get the young people. tell the truth. speak with some sense of, you know, let's get out the information that we know, that we understand. let's be as honest as we possibly can. let's get out of the box, you know, talking to each other in language that does not resonate and connect to young people. i'm so proud of this connection that i've made with these young
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people. they do call me auntie maxine. i embrace that. i love that. and i'm going to be their auntie. i'm going to keep telling the truth. i want them to get out there, register people to vote, get active, and bombard the congress of the united states and the leadership with what they want them to do. i'm just real pleased about, you know, my followers have gone up from about 47,000 as of this morning, i think it's maybe up to 150,000. >> i love it. >> just in a short period of time. thank you, millennials. >> give them your twitter handle, i think it's it's @repmaxinewaters. thank you for my moment of maxine. appreciate it. thank you so much. >> may i tell you like the millennials, stay woke.
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>> yes. after the break, donald trump's meeting with the leaders of historically black colleges, as we mentioned. what you may have missed in the uproar over kellyanne conway's breach of protocol. my business was built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means
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i want to make sure we give congresswoman maxine waters' correct twitter handle handle, @maxinewaters. up next on "a.m. joy," donald trump's new executive order on historically black colleges. is it already getting a failing grade? my panel breaks down the fine print. ♪
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(vo) do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day;
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rage, rage against the dying of the light. do not go gentle into that good night. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
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i was being asked to take a picture in a crowded room with
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the press behind us. i was asked to take a certain angle and was doing exactly that. i meant no disrespect, i didn't mean to have my feet on the couch. >> lost amid the debate over whether or not kellyanne conway was treating the oval office like her personal living room, was the reason that donald trump was meeting with the heads of the nation's historically black colleges and universities. a day after the photo op and listening session, trump signed an executive order on hbcus. trump adviser omarosa manigault said the white house was improving on the relationship over the obama administration in responding to policy priorities laid out by hbcu stakeholders. however, the executive order fails to address some of the key demands made by black college leaders. joining me now, thank you guys for being here. professor, i'm going to come to you first, because there was a list that the united negro college fund put out that listed
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the top priorities for historically black colleges and universities. you wrote a piece about this. this was submitted to the white house, full funding of the hbc programs, strength of pell grants, investments in hbc facilities and infrastructure, and regulatory reform. did any of that come about in this executive order? >> not explicitly. maybe implicitly. the executive order reads a lot like president obama's executive order, it's about action, accountability, and about every federal agency doing their part and funding hbcus at the level that is commensurate with the higher education landscape. but they didn't get as specific as the hbcus wanted them to be. >> we have a side by side comparison of president obama's order and president trump's order.
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president obama's order said to be housed in the department of education, and then in the trump executive order, it has the same exact wording. it just changes that to housed in the executive office of the president led by executive director dizziesignated by the president. the only change we were able to detect between the first and second orders is that one, moving the office. is moving the office into the white house make it a stronger office in your view? >> i was concerned about that. i served as an executive director of the white house initiative for a couple of years. i served in totalhree years. and i thought that being in the department of education was a strategic position, because the department of education accounts for $700 million of grants and contracts and appropriations and $3 billion in student aid. and also, a lot of the interaction with the office of the white house had a lot to do with messaging and things that
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was politically expedient. i have some concern that moving it to the white house will make it -- make the political priorities a little bit more at the top and the administrative priorities, those very important tasks of holding the federal agencies accountable, they might get sidetracked. they don't have to be, but that could happen. >> doctor, you are a moorehouse graduate, a double hbc grad. the president of your alma mater, of morehouse college, john sylvainus, he said, instead of a long awaited executive order symbolizing a shift, it is not possible to manage the impact of this gesture anytime soon if ever. the meetings were a troubling meeting to what must be a productive relationship. dillard's president wrote a post
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saying, there was very little listening to hbcu presidents today, we were only given two minutes each and that was cut to one minute, so only about seven or maybe 15 speakers were given an opportunity to even speak at all. your thoughts? >> hbcus are hallowed ground. we have to remember that over 50% of black professionals in america right now are graduates of hbcus. so let's make no mistake. these institutions are serious about education. and the african-american presidents that went to the white house, all they wanted was a seat at the table. they wanted to see. i think it probably could have been better done if, you know, they had a small consortium that maybe went, so so much money wasn't wasted to go there for nothing. but the reality is the republican water right now, they want to give the hbcus a seat at the table but they don't want them to eat. so guess what, i don't want your seat at the table, that's my opinion. if you're not going to do what you need to do to make sure that
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hbcus who have a serious educational issue right now with funding, if you don't give them the money that they need, then i think you're doing aupre disservice. i want people also to remember at t gradu of hbcus are forging the way in science, technology, engineering, and math programs. so this whole farce of going to the oval office i think was a photo op for the president. and we cannot allow that to happen. and as a proud alumnus of two hbcus, i won't allow it to happen. >> and president morris indicated he felt they had basically gotten a photo op. tara, this move of the hbcu initiative out of the auspices of betsy devos, i wonder if that is such a bad thing in light of her own ignorance on hbcus. before this meeting took place she issued a statement, "hbcus are real pioneers when it comes to school choice, they are living proof that when more
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options are provided to students, they are afford greater access." hbcus were of course created because there were no options. it's not like black people were like, you know, we can could to any college but we'll pick these. she had to amend that, because on her very own website, on the department of education website, it says blacks were generally denied admission to traditionally white institutions, as a result hbcus became the traditional means for providing post secondary education to black americans. if she won't even read her own website to find out what hbcus are, should she be the department that runs hbcus? >> she shouldn't be running the department of education under any circumstances given her background and her unwillingness to even learn the issues herself and learn the history behind the issues. this is really troubling on a number of fronts. first of all, many of the presidents who were there and who were invited are indicating
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that they were led to believe that some of these discussions that would take place at the meeting would be far more substantive. as an example, a lot of hbcus would like to see year-round pell grants being offered and that was something that has not come up. that's something that would help hbcus because many of the students rely on pell grants. we know republicans actually want to cut pell grant funding. a lot of these presidents went into this meeting thinking it was going to be one thing and came out with something completely different, which is donald trump's usual slight of hand, smoke and hemirrors. as far as betsy devos is concerned, to go back to that and your earlier question, joy, i'm glad she made that statement, because it gives us an opportunity to once again correct the record as to why hbcus exist and to ehasize their importance in american culture broadly. a lot of innovation is common. tuskegee just got a patent for
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food safety to improve food safety in this country. these are important constitutioinstitutions for all americans. >> absolutely. very quickly, ivory, before we go, not that it was the most important thing, but did you feel disrespected by the kellyanne conway couch thing or is it overblown? >> i thought it was a little disrespectful. i tried to imagine a group of ivy league presidents there and wondering if she would be seated the same way. so i do think she felt a little more casual and, you know, it probably was an implicit bias that i think she needs to evaluate. >> absolutely. >> absolutely. professor, thank you so much. doctor, tara, thank you, my friends, really appreciate you guys. all right. and speaking of hbcus, one howard university alum is making some news this week. rachel dolezal who claims to be black even though both her
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parents and she are white, has a new name. rachel, who lost her gig as president of spokane's naacp chapter, says she's broke and on food stamps. she's legally changed her name to, wait for it, a name of nigerian origin that means gift of god. i'm going to leave that right there. as we go to break, a bit of the special folk wisdom of former president george w. bush and perhaps a lesson for our friends at the nation's historically black colleges. >> there is an old saying in tennessee. i know it's in texas, probably in tennessee, that says fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. you can't get fooled again.
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tune into "a.m. joy" tomorrow live again from los angeles.
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we'll be joined by actress and comedienne kathy griffin and filmmaker rob reiner. more "a.m. joy" coming up. ou hi. or here, when you walked away without a scratch. maybe it was the day your baby came home. or maybe the day you realized your baby was not a baby anymore. every subaru is built to earn your trust. because we know what you're trusting us with. subaru. kelley blue book's most trusted brand. and best overall brand. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.
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this weekend, civil rights activists are in selma, alabama to commemorate the 52nd anniversary of bloody sunday when state treerps oopers assau hundreds of these who were demanding righting. joining me dr. reverend barber. thank you so much for being here. tell us about these events in selma to commemorate. >> well, certainly i'm glad to be invited by senator hank sanders. this is a remembrance oft happened2 years ago, b more it's a reconsecration. wee
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we'll be at brown channpel and tomorrow night we will have a town hall voter suppression is alive and well, calling for the full restoration ever of the voting rights act. we can no longer just remember what happened in selma because in many ways people are trying to take us backwards across the bridge. i think frederick douglas said slavery is not abolished until the black has the right to vote. and we need to update pa that. >> and you and other activists sebts an open letter to attorney general jefferson exceptions this week. and it says to join us in selma on the right side of history. what were you calling for in that letter, sir? >> well, what we're calling for is for the attorney general to call and demand the congress fully restore voting rights act, that he make a public stance. he comes from alabama he claims he wants doto do right.
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this is an opportunity for him to show that. tomorrow would be 1349 days, three years, eight months, ten days since the supreme court nullified the voegt rights actis by dismanniling section four. that is 1348 days longer than strong thurman filibustered the 1957 civil rights act. and we've had 22 states that represent nearly 250 electoral votes, over 50% of bloblack voto have put in place the voter suppression law. there was a voter suppression hack of our political system. >> and do you expect attorney general sessions to show up in his home state? the justice department has reversed his position on the texas voter i.d. case.
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they seem to be taking the opposite position as previous justices on voter rights. >> i don't know if he'll show up, but we have thousands to sign this letter, we will show up at his office, there are plans to really make this a serious move among moral leaders and clergy. there were clergy and young people that led across that bridge. by him pulling out of texas, it's an eerie sign to think that the justice department will now be the adversary to voting rights rather than anned a vow today the. it's like going back across the bridge and we're challenging him. this is one of the most serious moral issues about democracy. you talk about again hacking from russia, when you can undermine the voting system, that is a darng to our democracy in every way. >> very quickly, i have to ask you about this. there is a congressman representative roernlg marshall of kansas who has said in terms of the medicaid expansion, he said just like jesus said, the poor will always be with us, a group of people who just don't
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want health care and aren't going to take care of themselves. sir, as a pastor, i feel i have to ask you your take on his take on jesus. >> well, that is a form of harrhai heresy. when jesus was quoting that as a good hebrew, whenever they quote the part of skrip scripture, thy mean the whole thing. it says you should care for the poor. jesus if he did anything provided free health care. >> he sure did. main band did not charge a premium. >> thank you so much, reverend. always a pleasure to talk to you. that is our show for today. join us tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern for more a.m. joy live from los angeles. our guests will include rob reiner and kathy griffin. and coming up next, the latest
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on durdonald trump's accusation that his predecessor wiretapped trump tower before the election. sheinelle jones has more news at the top of the hour. hey, searching for a great used car? i don't want one that's had a big wreck just say, show me cars with no accidents reported find the cars you want, avoid the ones you don't plus you get a free carfax® report with every listing i like it start your used car search at carfax.com
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good day. i'm sheinelle jones in new york. new reaction this hour to a series of explosive president trump tweets that accuse the obama administration of wiretapping trump tower. a story that broke just before 7:00 this morning. and we begin with new reaction to those allegations by president obamaobama -- preside trump accusing the obama separation. here just one of six tweets. he wrote, quote, terrible, just found out that obama had my wires tapped in trump tower just before the victory. nothing found. this is mccarthyism. and here is lindsey graham at a town hall this morning. >> the president of the united states i cim

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